Lu Mingshu and the girl in black went into the palace courtyard.
"Why is there no one here?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows.
"It would be weird if there was," Lu Mingshu replied.
The girl thought for a while before she realized the reason. This was part of the Grandmaster's test; if there was someone here, wouldn't that make things too easy for them?
The courtyard was gorgeous, but there wasn't much yang energy here. There were many decorations, but not many daily appliances. It looked cold, and it seemed that no one stayed here.
"Let's split up." Lu Mingshu turned to the girl.
The girl in black nodded, and they both went into different rooms.
Lu Mingshu glanced over the area and took the details down in her heart. She changed these details into numerical values and put them into her mind before she went to the next room.
This courtyard wasn't big, and it was rather neat. After half an hour, Lu Mingshu stopped.
She then leaned on a pole to review the details she acquired over the past half hour. Suddenly, she widened her eyes in shock.
Hearing some rumbling, the girl in black came over immediately. Seeing Lu Mingshu tearing down the palace, she yelled at her in anger, "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Taking down the house!" Lu Mingshu stopped her actions and turned toward the girl, flashing her a wide smile. "Isn't that obvious?"
"You…! This is where the Grandmaster lives! You're so disrespectful! If you anger the Grandmaster, do you want me to die with you?"
"What, you don't dare to?" She hummed, not taking any more notice of the girl in black.
The girl in black was now ready to skin Lu Mingshu alive. "What does it have to do with me daring or not?" Seeing that Lu Mingshu didn't have any intention of stopping, the girl in black fished out her sword to stop Lu Mingshu. "Stop it!"
Lu Mingshu turned around to attack her.
Lu Mingshu was very skilled with swords, and at this moment, she put her full ability on display. The girl in black had no choice but to give it her all as well. The fight caused mystic light to scatter all around the room, and, being made of common wood, it was destroyed at an even faster rate.
The girl wanted to stop this fight, but she couldn't.
They fought all the way to the other rooms. Crackling and rattling, followed by small explosions - every room they entered, they tore it down.
The girl in black was now extremely angry, and she screamed bloody murder, "Lu Mingshu, are you a lunatic?"
"You'll know whether I'm a lunatic or not soon enough."
After this, another sword-light flashed out. Amidst crashing sounds, half of the courtyard's roof collapsed to the ground. Perhaps the sword struck a critical point, because with a Boom!, the whole beam of the roof fell down, followed by different parts of the courtyard without stop.
The debris started falling on them, covering them with wood and forcing them to stop their fight.
The girl in black exerted mystic light, congealing it into a protective cover to prevent the fragments from injuring her. Is this Lu Mingshu a mad dog? Oh great, now the ground is moving too.
The vibrating didn't stop, and suddenly, she lost her balance.
The girl in black shrieked. As soon as she wanted to help herself up, a sword-light stopped her. Because she wanted to avoid the sword-light, she lost her last chance and fell into the darkness.
What New Generation Ranking's first place, bullshit! She's sick!
That was the last thing that crossed her mind before she fell unconscious.
After some time, the girl slowly got back her senses. Everything seemed blurry, and she could hear some sounds beside her.
As she was about to get up, somebody covered her mouth.
With that, she suddenly became more alert. As she started to struggle free, she heard a whisper; "Don't move."
Ying swallowed down her urge to take out her sword and slash Lu Mingshu. She wasn't used to having people in such close proximity to herself, and she couldn't stand someone sticking onto her.
She side-eyed Lu Mingshu. This was the first time she saw Lu Mingshu in such close proximity. This face seemed to be a young but mature-looking face. Lu Mingshu looked more like a kid than the descriptions said.
Ying heard some noise, reminding her of the situation she was in.
"Brother, where is this?"
Ying could recognize this voice; it was Zhang Jingyu's voice.
Indeed, what Ying heard next was Zhang Rulin's voice. "Should be something that the Grandmaster made."
After some moments, Ying could hear Zhang Jingyu's reply. "Uncle Zhao is right. If we do not know how to seize the opportunity and waste our time outside, we'll lose the chance."
"Yeah! Father's the smartest after all, taking about this with Uncle Zhao early."
Ying narrowed her eyes. "Uncle Zhao?" Zhao Yin, is it? So, the Zhang Family has already planned it out. Ever since Zhao Yin left Jasper Sun Mountain, he never said anything about his experience, and even Ancient Jade Summit didn't dare to force him out of respect to the Grandmaster. Who knew he was already on the Zhang Family's side?
The Zhang Family was indeed quiet and sneaky. The Ye Family seemed powerful, but the Zhang Family was the truly powerful one.
"That Ling Wuxia and Lu Mingshu are now in a fierce fight. I don't know if they can even find this place." Zhang Jingyu sounded pleased with herself. "Father reminded us to take note of them and take advantage of the situation. Now though, I doubt that's needed. We're already ahead of them."
Zhang Rulin shook his head. "Don't get complacent. We don't know Lu Mingshu well, and Ling Wuxia is the best disciple in Ancient Jade Summit and would most likely be able to find it. Just look at her; even though she lost to Lu Mingshu previously, she seized the chance to turn the tables."
"So? Aren't we the first to notice it? You're always looking at her as if she's some goddess, but she was just lucky to be born in a better place! Why is there a need to flatter her so much?"
"Haish, what are you thinking?" Zhang Rulin sounded exasperated. "What is Ancient Jade Summit like? They have so many elites over there; if she was just lucky, how could she be where she is right now?"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just admit that, in your - men's - eyes, Ling Wuxia is always the best!"
"What does it have to do with my gender? Younger sister, stop spouting nonsense and come look for a way out with me."
"Fine…."
The twins slowly moved further away, and their conversation could no longer be heard.
Ying gave Lu Mingshu a death glare.
Lu Mingshu retrieved her hand and wiped it clean before tidying up her clothes.
The girl in black narrowed her eyes at Lu Mingshu. "Where is this place, and what's going on?"
"Do you think that the test the Grandmaster set up is simple?" Lu Mingshu combed her hair and tied it up once again.
The girl in black stared at her weirdly. "You did that on purpose, huh? Destroying the courtyard, I mean."
Lu Mingshu said nothing. She just side-eyed the girl.
The girl in black continued to probe despite the lack of response. She felt a chill run down her spine. "How did you know there was something not right about the courtyard?"
Lu Mingshu once again ignored her question.
Ying realized she had asked a stupid question. What am I thinking, why would she tell me her secret skill?
"Ah, we should get going soon." Lu Mingshu stood up. "This isn't a hard round, and most will arrive soon. We should cherish our time."
Even if one hadn't learned about arrays before, they could notice the abnormality. It was just that, if one knew about arrays, they would have a better understanding and could get ahead of the curve.